To further B2B push, Amazon rolls out Amazon Business in India

Amazon Business is a new B2B marketplace which will reach out to a larger base of small and medium enterprises with a selection of more than 100 million products

Amazon.com Inc., the online marketplace has launched a new B2B retail service on its India platform called the Amazon Business. This is aimed at reaching a higher base of small and medium scale enterprises as the company looks to tap into new revenue streams amid a tough battle for the market share with the leader and e-commerce giant, Flipkart.

Amazon India said that it would look to serve a range of businesses and ventures through this new service which include technology and service companies, schools and universities and manufacturers. The marketplace aims to serve the small and medium scale businesses. With the feedback from the 220,000 sellers who reach out to Amazon and want to purchase stuff from the B2C marketplace, Amazon ensured that the entire process is now made quicker and easier. Amazon keeps quantity limits on the consumer marketplace and it has learnt that small businesses struggle to meet their procurement requirements in a seamless manner.

Amazon had launched the B2B marketplace globally in April 2015 and has now replicated the service in India, where small and medium scale businesses are growing. The online B2B market in India is expected to expand fast and the expansion will be helped by the launch of various well-funded B2B startups over the past two years. This new marketplace will consist of a selection of more than 100 million products and the company expects a lot of business from categories that include office products, electronics and printers. Other categories also expect a high sale like network storage solutions, pantry supplies and laptops to name a few.

As a part of the B2B push, Amazon has already started putting a local team in place in order to help run the business and has also hired executives from various companies to head the initiative. Earlier in the year, Amazon pumped in funds to build out the wholesale business in India. Amazon has infused more than Rs.750 crore to grow the B2B business across the country. In B2B marketplace, Amazon will have prices which will be different from the prices offered to customers on the B2C marketplace. There will be higher quantity discounts on the B2B marketplace.

Amazon India has also tied up with various financial service firms and banks which will provide interest free, business credit cards to the eligible consumers. More than 15, 000 small businesses have already enrolled on the Amazon Business since its launch. The step towards building a strong B2B business in India was taken by Amazon in 2015 and it added categories like furniture to its marketplace in order to increase the value of goods that are sold on the platform. Amazon first launched the invite only B2B platform Amazon Business in May 2015 and after that, it opened the offering to all the merchants.